


I Said Hallelujah to the Sixteen Loyal Fans

by NeoVenus22



Category: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 19:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoVenus22/pseuds/NeoVenus22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beca hadn't been expecting exposure.  So she's taken aback when Jesse shows her the Bellas' video on Youtube.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Said Hallelujah to the Sixteen Loyal Fans

Beca hadn't been expecting exposure. Sure, she'd seen the 'Aubrey pukes on everyone and everything' video one time on Youtube (before a repeated viewing threatened to make her lose her lunch). And she knew, courtesy of Benji's enthusiastic updates every time she visited Jesse's room, that the Treblemakers had their own channel. So she probably shouldn't have been surprised to find out a recording of their performance at the ICCA finals had something like several hundred thousand views.

Of course, some of her surprise came from the method of delivery - through her roommate Kimmy Jin with a stunning lack of spite. Beca had come back from the showers, and had only just shut the door behind her when Kimmy Jin said, "Your club thing has a quarter of a million views."

"My club thing..." Beca's mind went first to the 'dance' or 'night' version of the word, and she thought of her music. Maybe a mash-up she'd done that had gone viral? But that didn't make any sense. Her music never got played. She blinked helplessly at her roommate. "Wait, what?"

"Your flight attendant thing," Kimmy Jin said, gesturing vaguely.

"The Bellas?"

"Whatever. The thing you went to New York for. The video is on one of those 'hot things on the web' lists." Beca had no idea if Kimmy Jin found this impressive or irritating.

There was a knock on the door. "Anyone naked in here?" called Jesse, letting himself in like he always did. He did like making himself at home. Beca didn't mind it so much anymore.

Jesse took in Beca's robe with raised eyebrows. "Damn. I've got to work on my timing. Hey, Kimmy Jin."

"You're here again," said Kimmy Jin stonily, shutting her laptop with a snap. Just like that, whatever goodwill had been fostered in the last sixty seconds was gone. "I'm going to go somewhere a little more quiet," she said. As though they'd been there for hours, hosting a rave.

"That girl is such a charming hostess," said Jesse as the door slammed. He turned to Beca with a wide smile. "So did you hear? You're viral."

"Hey, I've had all my shots."

"Benji saw the Bellas' ICCA video on Buzzfeed or Gawker or Tumblr or something. You're a celebrity."

"So you're telling me you didn't barge in here for sex?"

"Is that on the table?" Beca threw her damp hair towel at him. "Guess not," he said. "And to think, I was really looking forward to bragging to all the guys in the locker room that you're internet-famous and I get to hit that."

"Just what activity do you do that requires the use of a locker room?"

Jesse ignored this, climbing onto her bed and opening her laptop. "Have you seen the video yet?"

"I didn't know it existed until about three minutes ago."

He patted the bed next to him. "Let's do this, then."

"Dude, let me put some pants on before this happens."

Jesse grinned. "Don't let me stop you."

"It's not a free show. I'm on Youtube; that's enough exposure for one day. Close your eyes." Sure, Jesse had already seen her naked (in the dark, under the covers), but that didn't mean she was going to prance around nude in front of him. At least, not yet. It wasn't as easy for her to get to a level of comfortable intimacy, no matter what kind, as it was for him. She was working on it.

"You do realize I've seen your naked body," Jesse said, as though reading her mind.

"Just close your eyes."

"Touched it, even."

"Humor me."

Jesse obligingly screwed his eyes shut then clapped his hands to his face. Beca had to smile at that. Even so, Beca dressed herself in record time and flopped down on the mattress next to him.

"Seems like a waste to put on clothes if you're just going to get into bed with me," said Jesse.

Beca gestured at the computer screen. "Start this puppy up."

"That's how they start off the Puppy Bowl, too," said Jesse, and pressed play.

Beca was glad she was in the back for a lot of the performance, because her dancing was not as good on video as she'd thought it looked onstage. Of course, she had known going in that it wasn't that great on stage, either, which was why she was in the back.

"This is embarrassing," she said, needing to talk so he wouldn't focus so much on the video. "And those pants are unflattering. Can't we watch yours? Surely someone filmed it in great, slavering detail."

"Jealous?"

"In so many ways."

Jesse poked her hip. "You look fine. Those are awful pants, though. You should burn them."

Beca smacked his arm, even though she was laughing. Then her solo started, the most vulnerable and embarrassing moment of her entire life to date, documented for everyone with an internet connection to see. Of course, the average Youtube viewer couldn't know this part of the performance was a shameless plea to get a cute boy to like her. But the Bellas knew. And Jesse knew.

She knew she was blushing. Beca made a big deal of combing her wet hair with her fingers, to better hide her face while she waited for the heat in her cheeks to recede.

Then she realized Jesse wasn't actually paying attention to her. Well, not the her next to him on the bed. She glanced over and saw him mouthing along, the way he had when they'd watched the ending to The Breakfast Club. Dear lord, she was his new John Bender.

"You nerd!" she said.

Jesse looked at her, the in-person her, managing to be sweetly innocent and instinctively guilty all at once. "What?"

"How many times have you seen this?" she demanded, awed.

He shrugged. "Ten, maybe?"

Beca goggled at him. "Really?"

"This is, without a doubt, the _coolest_ thing anyone has ever done for me. Ever."

Funny how her most embarrassing moment was this amazing moment for him. It was humbling. She'd been humbled a lot since she came to Barden. Who knew?

She couldn't think of what to say. She was, historically, not good with words. Fortunately, gestures worked. Lacking the time, energy, and nine other people required to put together an arrangement, she opted instead to lean over and kiss him. It wasn't that intense of a kiss, she could feel him smile against her lips.

But when they came up for air, Jesse was looking at her with his serious face. "Bec, this is such a huge deal for you."

"Yeah, I often thought my make-out skills would take me far in life."

"I meant the Bellas. This could change your career."

"What, this?" She gestured at the paused video, capturing Denise in a mid-note grimace, despite Aubrey's repeated badgering that Bellas Are Always Smiling, while Ashley was frozen in an unflattering position, her butt in the air. The Beca of the video just looked like a dork.

"Yeah," said Jesse with passion. "It was really great, Beca. And eventually someone's going to find out you were the one who did the arrangement, and they're gonna find out how great you are."

"Like you did?"

"I always knew," he said, kissing her cheek. He stretched, one of Beca's favorite moves of his, shallow as it was, because it showed off his arms and lifted up his t-shirt a little bit. She'd gotten good at staring without staring. She knew she was allowed to stare at him, but he liked it too much and you had to keep that ego in check.

"Yeah, that's why I'm getting in on the ground floor," he went on casually. "Play the long game and ride on your success."

"You evil mastermind," she gasped. "Faking sincere talent all to cash in on my middling internet fame."

Jesse smiled at her, looking a little embarrassed. "You think I'm talented?"

Beca rolled her eyes and poked him in the arm. "Duh. Me and every girl responsible for ridiculous amount of views on the Trebles' channel."

"You watch the Trebles' channel?" he said with a big grin, stretching an arm across her shoulders. The ego again, naturally. She should've known better than to say anything.

"Research," Beca said, embarrassed. "I was checking up on the competition." She tugged the laptop a little closer, to keep herself busy, idly scrolling down the page.

If Jesse knew it was a distraction technique or not, she didn't know, but in seconds he'd put his hand over hers. "What are you doing?"

"Reading the comments."

"You don't want to read the comments."

Jesse, Beca thought, should have known her better by now, and should have known that sentence would only serve to pique her morbid curiosity. "Why shouldn't I read the comments?"

"I just don't think you need--"

"'Ugh, bunch of fatties,'" Beca read loudly, straining against Jesse's attempts to take the laptop away from her. "'What happened to the old Bellas? The new ones are barftastic.' 'Obvs using a drum machine, posers.' 'Super lame, but check out the hot one's ass.' 'Real Usher is better than fake Usher any day, what losers, who do they think they are.' 'I would only bang thirty percent of these bitches, maybe forty if the one in jeans wears a bag on her head, LOL.'" She turned incredulously to Jesse. "Which one is the one in jeans?"

"Does it matter?" he said, looking tired and pained. "It's just a bunch of internet trolls."

"This is gross," she said, slapping the laptop shut so hard Jesse winced at the sound. "And total bullshit. I worked _my ass_ off on that for like a month straight, and only, like, one of these comments was about the actual _music_."

"I told you not to read them..." Jesse said, tucking the offending object behind him on the desk, out of sight. "It doesn't matter. Don't even think about some idiots on the internet."

" _Ugh_ ," she said passionately, suddenly filled with a new respect for Aubrey, who'd gone through all of this before, probably a hundred times, and came out swinging. No wonder she was the way she was.

"Hey." Jesse squeezed her hand. "The only thing you ought to be worrying about is the competition. And fortunately for you, you're sleeping with him."

"I suppose that gives me a leg up," she admitted with a grudging smile. He was right, after all, these people were just strangers on the internet who likely could not do what she could do. Screw them.

"I could give _you_ a leg up," said Jesse with an eyebrow waggle.

"What does that even mean?" she laughed. Jesse's flirting skills, while better than hers, were occasionally just bizarre. It was part of his charm.

"Haters just means you're successful, you did what you set out to do," he said, planting a quick kiss on her. "Forget those idiots and focus on the very important task of trying to beat the Trebles next year, because now I know all of your tricks."

Beca had to smile at that. "Not _all_ of them," she corrected, and leaned in.


End file.
